Esera Tuaolo, one of two grand marshals for this year’s San Diego Pride Parade and a former NFL player, is back on TV. This time, though, he’s not playing football or coming out of the closet. He’s promoting steak.

Tuaolo is the centerpiece of a new television campaign for Chili’s.

The commercial is part of Chili’s “Tastemonials” campaign series. “It shows people who are not professional entertainers,” said Chili’s public relations representative, Louis Adams, “expressing their love for Chili’s through their performance.”

This particular installment features Tuaolo — 30 pounds lighter than his HBO Real Sports appearance eight months ago — sporting a beaming smile, playing a ukulele and singing about Chili’s Hawaiian steak. The setting is quintessentially tropical — complete with a big Hawaiian centerpiece from the NFL.

The conceit of the campaign series is that Tuaolo is not a professional entertainer, though his résumé says otherwise. On top of singing the National Anthem at more sporting events than Whitney Houston, Tuaolo has a commercial CD titled, One Man’s Island, has appeared on several NFL music compilations, and has no less than a half dozen theatrical performances under his belt.

It was during an audition for one of those theatrical productions that he first heard about the Chili’s promotion. While he was in St. Paul to audition for the ’70s send up, 8-Track, someone in the casting office told Tuaolo that Chili’s was looking for someone Hawaiian to use for their upcoming commercial.

“I went to the audition with my ukulele, jeans and a tight shirt, and I sang the Baby Back Ribs commercial song,” said Tuaolo. “They said they wanted something different.”

What they didn’t expect was to get an openly gay former NFL player. Adams said Tuaolo’s sexual orientation never entered the decision-making process. And, given the campaign’s theme of average people expressing themselves, they didn’t realize until very late in the process that they had a former professional athlete on their hands.

In the commercial, Tuaolo isn’t billed as a former NFL player, or a gay person. He is simply labeled: “Esera — Retired Athlete.”

Asked if someone’s sexual orientation would ever affect the company’s decision to work with them in a marketing campaign, Adams was adamant: “No way. It runs contrary to our company policy. We don’t discriminate on any basis, in the hiring of any employees, in serving customers, in any capacity.”

Michael Wilke, from ComercialCloset.org, sees Chili’s handling of the campaign as a solid message. “It is encouraging to see that he has gotten an endorsement so soon after his coming out process. “

Certainly other closeted professional athletes should take notice. While Tuaolo’s sexual orientation seems to not have played a part in him getting the role, Chili’s is not shying away from the issue. Given his experience with the company, Tuaolo isn’t surprised.

“Everybody who was involved treated me first class,” Tuaolo said. “They were really interested in my family. I showed them pictures of my kids and my husband.

“I loved Chili’s before, but now I love the company even more.”

— Cyd Zeigler Jr. is the editor of Outsports.com